Of squirrel-people and men

Wednesday, March 29, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

What: "An Evening With Christopher Moore"

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Clark County Library's Jewel Box Theater, 1401 E. Flamingo Road

Admission: Free

Information: 507-3400

When Charlie Asher, a loving husband, new father and owner of a San Francisco thrift store, learns that he is an appointed "death merchant," his life becomes a little wacky.

His job is to transfer souls via material objects that he collects from the dead or dying, while wrangling the sewer harpies of the Underworld.

Sound crazy? A little. But it's pure Christopher Moore. The noted comic fantasy writer puts a humorous twist on the mystery of death in his new novel, "A Dirty Job," released this month by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.

The best-selling author ("The Stupidest Angel" and "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal") explores death through a cast of colorful characters: Asher, a self-proclaimed beta male; his colleague named Minty Green; hellhounds; giant flying raven women; his thrift-store employes; his family and the finely dressed miniature squirrel/lizard people.

On Thursday Moore will be at the Clark County Library to talk about "A Dirty Job" and about being a writer. While in Seattle on his book tour last week, he took a few minutes to talk with the Sun.

Considering all of the darkness and sadness attached with death, your book is pretty uplifting.

That was what I was hoping for, to defang the fear of death.

What inspired this book?

I was the primary caretaker of my mother when she was dying of cancer for five months, and then my girlfriend's mother died.

In addition to overwhelming sadness, I've heard those situations can get kind of crazy.

It's very absurd. You get in a goofy mind set. I saw all the death and dying, and I thought the material was rife for ribbing. (On tour) I basically talk about the absolute insanity of it.

Your books are funny. Do people expect you to be funny in person?

Yeah, I think so. I try to deliver. This one is harder because I'm talking about death, and that's kind of a bummer. But it gets better as the tour goes on.

Did your attitude toward death change when writing "A Dirty Job?"

I think my attitude toward death has changed in that I'm not as afraid of it, nor am I afraid of being around people who are dying. One of the things you learn being around the dying is just how valuable our moments of life, of "right now," are. I think the book helped drive that home for me.

Why write humor?

It's just sort of my default setting. I tried to write the serious stuff. Years ago I wrote horror and I took the stories to a conference and started reading them and they started laughing.

But it wasn't the intention of the text?

No. It was the outfit I had on. The clown suit at the writers conference just turns on the laughs.

You write about religion, vampires and mythology. Why the supernatural?

All kids go through a stage when they're fascinated with monsters. I just didn't grow out of it.

Do you ever feel that you get too carried away, especially with "A Dirty Job."

Yes. It's over the top. But once you've got squirrel people, where do you draw the line?

How did you research this book?

I read "The Egyptian Book of the Dead." "The Tibetan Book of the Dead." The (Elisabeth) Kubler-Ross books. But most of it was just hanging around in San Francisco.

I did discover the squirrel people there at Paxton Gate (a collectibles store in San Francisco that dabbles in taxidermy and natural sciences).

You're probably bringing the woman who makes them a lot of business.

I hope she sells a million of them. I hope people read this book and order them out the wazoo.